Baghdad: at least 28 killed in attack on mosque

At least twenty-eight people were killed and 37 wounded on the night of Sunday August 28th in a suicide attack on a Sunni mosque in West Baghdad, as reported by an official of the Minister of the Interior.

“A suicide bomber entered the Umm al-Qura mosque in Ghazaliya and blew himself up, killing 28 people and wounding 37 others”, including children, specified the official, who requested anonymity.

According to this official, Khalid al-Fahdawi, a member of parliament for the Sunni province Anbar, was amongst those killed.

A spokesperson for Baghdad security forces, Qassim Atta, confirmed that he is “100 per cent certain that Al Qaeda were behind this attack”.

Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, who runs the Umm al-Qura mosque declared on television channel Al-Sharqiya that he is “sure that Al Qaeda were behind this attack”.

“We will carry on our fight against these criminals and scoundrels. They have already tried to drag the country into a sectarian war”, underlined the religious dignitary, co-founder of a Sunni militia against Al Qaeda, known for its virulent sermons against the extremists.

The Umm al-Qura mosque is run by the Sunni Waqf (an authority in charge of religious properties). The attack took place not long before the end of the sacred month of Ramadan. The Fitr holiday is to be celebrated on Tuesday or Wednesday.

In total, at least 35 people perished on Sunday in the Iraqi violence.

A series of attacks on August 15th - suicide attacks, bombs, and shooting in 18 Iraqi towns killed 74 and wounded more than 300, the most casualties in one day since May 2010.

In July, the violence led to 259 deaths in Iraq, according to government statistics.